Hawaii Race Season

Author: Jon Mann

So this is a long one, but Hawaii and the Koa Kai Triple crown… what a blast! For those that don’t know what the Koa Kai Triple crown is, it is the combination of the three main Hawaiian SUP foil downwind races (M2M and M2O are arguably the biggest races in the SUP foil DW race calendar at the moment) combined into an overall championship. The packed timeline meant that foilers flocked to Hawaii for an intense week of prep, racing and good times with Paddle Imua (12km) kicking things off on Sunday the 14th of July, followed by Maui to Molokai (M2M) on the 19th of July (just over 40km) with the pinnacle of the racing week being Molokai to Oahu (M2O) on the 21st of July (just over 60km). The overall title was determined based on the total time across all three races with a multiplier / weighting applied to each making the total time for the Koa Kai title = Paddle Imua Time + 2 x M2M time and 3 x M2O time. I think this is great as it rewards your performance based on the difficulty of the race. In this blog I’ll reflect a bit on my experiences in each of the races and my time in Hawaii.

For those who want to get wider impression of the events there’s some great Youtube videos out there showcasing the awesome performances from some of the top riders in this years fleet: Edo and F-one, Lift team, Jack Ho (M2M), Jack Ho (M2O).

Back to the roots

The first thing to remember is the origin of these races. Sure we like to race, and racing has a selfish egotistical nature to it. But if it wasn’t for these organisations, we wouldn’t have these races, and one could argue that the cause and community is above the crowning of an individual champion in the grand scheme of things. So, I’ve digressed, but Paddle Imua raises money for Camp Imua, an amazing organisation that supports children with disabilities and gives them opportunities to experience the joy of play and sports. Maui to Molokai raises money for the youth, and especially the youth on Molokai, through the Youth in Motion organisation. M2M is all about community and bringing it together through paddling and embodies Hawaiian cultural values. If anyone wants to support these charities, have a look at the donation links on their sites. 

How did my races go?

So I arrived on Maui 2 days before Paddle Imua on the evening of the 12th giving me 1 day to familiarise myself with the Maliko run, but with the finish at Kanaha Beach Park (typically the Maliko run finishes in Kahului Harbour). My goal on the 13th was to figure out which set up I was most comfortable with to both foil fast and pump through the lagoon (roughly 2km with much smaller bumps once you had crossed the reef). I planned to do 2 runs, testing the 860/120 and 770/120 combos, but felt that for how tired I was from travel, that maybe the 120 wasn’t the best call and ended up doing a 3rd run with the 770/135 which definitely felt the most comfortable across the lagoon. 

Paddle Imua: For the race, the forecast was a bit lighter, and after my learnings from Barcelona I decided to size up to the 860/135. This paid off for me at the start, not so much for the middle part of the race as I didn’t have as much speed as some of the others on faster setups, but paid off again as I managed to pump straight through the 2km flat(ish) stretch in the lagoon passing a lot of people who came down or who had to zig zag more with their smaller foils. This eventually put me in 40th out of 130 odd foilers. I was happy with this as the run was clean and in the grand scheme of things, this race was fairly minor for the overall standings considering the multipliers. 

Pre race – Photo credits: Paddle Imua

In the time between Paddle Imua and M2M I did a lot of practice runs, predominantly on the 770/120 as I was almost certain that this was the set up I would use for M2O. I also did a day trip over to Oahu to see how the finish was on a Hawaii Kai Run going from China Walls to Kaimana on a fairly similar forecast to M2O a few days later. 

M2M: On the morning of M2M the wind was extremely light and was also forecast to be light. Given the deep water of the Pailolo channel and its reputation for having epic bumps I was torn between the 770/120 and the 860/120, especially with the pumpy finish and slightly more northerly forecast. Eventually nerves got the better of me and I rigged the 860, which I regretted after loading my bag onto the luggage boat. Paddling out the 1.5-2km to the start, I realised the bumps weren’t that bad. I had a pretty poor start, nearly getting up on the gun forcing it, only to have my foot slip. 20 strokes later I was down and gassed so took a little breather before going again and popping up, however by this point most of the field was goooone. Once up, I once again regretted the choice to go with the 860, the bumps were so good and the wind seemed to pick up the longer we foiled, especially as we came in alongside Molokai. I had one stupid fall, but I was back up within 30s so that wasn’t too detrimental. As I had the slower foil I took the gamble that the shorter line (albeit slower) closer to Molokai would be a better call than going south and wider which was faster if you had the faster foil. Coming in alongside Molokai, the bumps stacked up and it was hard not to want to carve turns and surf all the way in (I did do a few cheeky turns). I was able to slowly pick my way through the bumps settling into rhythm and after I came into the finish and turned around I was surprised to see a whole group come in who I hadn’t seen (I think they took a very wide / too wide line). Overall pretty pleased with how M2M went given the foil choice, I think I finished 73/120 odd. My biggest learning here (and probably for Imua as well) is to build up more confidence on paddling up the 770 on demand in lighter conditions so as to not let the paddle up influence my decision making. 

In the ‘rest’ day between M2M and M2O I decided to take part in the Kamalo run as part of the Holokai Molokai festivities. People thought I was crazy with M2O the next day but I did it to take my mind off M2O and also because the forecast was nuking meaning I could just cruise around, do some turns and do a bit of no-pump foiling. Given I wasn’t a contender for any sort of title or position in these races, I didn’t feel like it really affected me from a fatigue perspective (my poor sleep and lack of ability to adjust to the time zone was more detrimental…). After the Kamalo run all the M2O racers met for the pre race briefing where we discussed the safety protocol and the start. 

M2O:  As I was a bit late booking accommodation on Molokai I wasn’t staying on the west side of the island near the start. So the day started with a shuttle from where we were staying near Kaunakakai to Kaluakoi. As we arrived we could see it was going to be windy (confirmed by a message from my boat captain as he made his way over as well). This confirmed the good forecast and so I was happy and confident taking the 770/120. After registration and setting up my gear, I coordinated with my boat captain so that I could bring my gear bag to him, using a SUP that someone had on the beach to swim my foil bag out to the boat. I then headed back to the beach to allow others to use the SUP to get their kit to their boats and once most people had sorted their gear we gathered for the pule prior to the race. This was a nice moment for me, to appreciate the challenge to come and gather myself before the crossing. We then all got on our boats with our boards and made our way up to the start (roughly 3km from the beach where we got ready). Nervously checking my watch I asked my captain to keep driving the boat until we saw others entering the water and eventually jumped off pretty close to the start line with 10 mins to go. From here it was a gentle paddle to the line and I found myself a spot without too many people around me. 

The race… when the starting flag went up I popped up and nearly got a great start, but ended up having to stop as someone had crossed in front of me and fell. I then managed to get started again and felt pretty good. I closed the gap to a group of people in front of me and felt pretty happy with my pace (2:10-2:15) and started to work my way north. This was something I had discussed and agreed with my captain and it paid off as I slowly diverged from the main group avoiding the mayhem that was all the boats and the wakes that ruined many riders’ runs. I actually had a front row seat to the mass of boats going full steam ahead to find their riders. I probably worked a bit too hard cutting north and could have saved some energy cutting a bit less but nonetheless my progress was good… until I locked into a nice big bump with someone on my left and someone on my right and the bump in front of me decided to feather and present me with a massive ball of white water that I couldn’t really get around. I braced myself and just felt my foil wobble and drop in all the white water whilst I hit the eject button. At this point in the race, the bumps were still pretty ok, so I lost about 5-6 minutes composing myself (had a look to see if I could find my boat) and then paddling up, though I did think to myself “you better not fall too much as that’s going to tire you out a lot”. Once going, I kept foiling at a good pace and continued to cut north following the line I had planned on my watch. Foiling almost on my own at this point, I could see a few people dotted around, it was such a surreal feeling to be out there. I can’t remember at what point of the course I noticed the wind started to get less, but I also made the mistake of forcing a few too many things and ended up off foil. By this point, the bumps were a bit more ‘wonky’ with the south swell mixed in with the wind bumps and the added stress of still not having my escort boat near me. I rushed a few frantic paddle up attempts and found myself getting tired quite quickly, falling off, trying to paddle up as quickly as possible in a downward spiral of energy wastage. I decided to sit down, eat an energy bar and then compose myself and paddle up again. After roughly 12 mins of messing around I was back on foil and continued on my line. By this point I had convinced myself that thanks to my two falls I was practically last (wasn’t the case) and was getting a bit worried about the boat situation…actually on two separate occasions escort boats came up to me (one from a nearby foiler and one from a rider who had pulled out) asking for my name and race number in order to shout it out on the radio. As I got closer to Oahu (maybe 5k from china walls) I made a mistake and came down. Thankfully at this point my boat managed to find me and I had a quick chat with my captain who said my line was good and I wasn’t doing as bad as I thought. However, being this close to China walls with the backwash, south swell and wind bumps all mixed into a nice wonky mess combined with me being tired and probably on a slightly too short / round board meant I really struggled to paddle up. After a lot of swearing, falling in, failing, near quitting I managed to pop up 20 minute later. At this point I was desperate not to fall and felt like I needed to make up for lost ground (no idea why, I had been off foil for almost 40 mins at this point…) and pushed, and as per previous times I’ve pushed when not needed I made another mistake and came off foil again. This time I decided to face the reality of the fact I’d blown any chance of a decent time. I had a chat with my captain, drank some water before going to paddle up again. It took me a few attempts of course, but nothing like the 20min struggle fest I had had before and I lost roughly 13mins or so with that fall (53mins lost from the 4 falls in total). Once up I was in familiar waters passing China Walls and the run I had practised the week before. The wind was a much nicer direction and so it was fairly easy to make it through to the finish, foiling past a number of people who had come down and couldn’t pop back up. The only negative of this last part was two escort boats who’s foilers had already finished that decided to scream right in front of me on their way back to Hawaii Kai. Luckily I didn’t fall, but I heard from a number of folks just ahead of me that they were affected by their wakes. At the finish I was handed a medal by a fellow dutchie, Anne Marie (organiser of the 11 city tour in the Netherlands) who has also paddled the channel herself which for me was a nice touch. Also wanted to give a massive thanks to Ivo and Belinda de Wilde for meeting me at the finish and getting a picture of that moment. Ivo and Belinda were an amazing support for me in Hawaii, helping me out getting to M2M, general advice and I can’t thank them enough.  

Upon reflection on my race. Of course I’m a bit disappointed at my time (3:14, a long way off the incredible winning time). But at the same time, I came to Hawaii with no expectations other than to test myself. My target pace across the channel was actually anywhere between 2:30-3:00min / km as I had no idea what to expect or what foil I would take. My average pace with the approx 53mins not on foil was 3:00min/km, and looking just at my foiling pace I was going between 2:08 and 2:20min/km. Had you told me before I would have foiled that quickly across the 60+km crossing I wouldn’t have believed you. Part of me is happy to know I can go a lot quicker and feel the weaknesses I need to address (paddle ups in wonky conditions, something I also suffered in Barcelona) are very easy to address in a targeted manner and so this result has only fuelled me to improve as a rider. Obviously the ideal scenario is not to come down at all, and that is something to work on too of course. But the ability to stay composed, and get back on foil quickly is something that needs to be in the skillset too.

Logistics

I thought I’d write a bit about this too. Everyone always says that getting to the race is harder than the race itself. It’s true, to a greater or lesser extent (just a bit of administrative hassle / organisation). Especially with the new format (which I think is great) where you go on from Molokai to Oahu. I won’t go into huge details, but things you need to organise in order to do the M2M – M2O are the following:

Getting to the start of M2M (you can park a car there, if you’re happy to leave it there until you get back after Oahu, if you’re coming back). I was super lucky that Belinda and Ivo gave me a lift. 

• Getting gear/luggage that isn’t what you are racing in/ with to Molokai (other foils etc). I went to Oahu to do the practice run and gave my boat captain the stuff I would need on Oahu and that I would need to fly back to Maui as well as my spare paddle. I then booked a luggage bag through the M2M organisers to go on the luggage boat. A lot of people did not pre book their luggage, which was difficult for the organisers as they didn’t plan for it. Fortunately they managed to get everyone’s luggage over though.
• Accommodation on Molokai. There’s a number of options. 
• Transfers on Molokai. If staying on the central / south side near Kaunakakai then you need to book transfers to the start in Kaluakoi. Note that as well as a transfer for yourself you need to book a transfer for your gear too. This is done through Molokai Outdoors (Clare and Gordon, who also organise Paddle Imua).
• Boat captain: this was required for this year. Though given the feedback on the impact of the wakes I’m not sure what will change for next year. However without an escort boat, getting luggage and gear over to Oahu will also be a challenge. As mentioned earlier, after picking my gear and rigging it up. I paddled my bag out to the boat with a SUP on the beach. 

The rest of my trip

After M2O I stayed on Oahu for another 2 days and managed to get another Hawaii Kai run in as well as a North Shore run. We got it with a slightly too easterly wind, so the top of the run was insane but the second half was a big flatter and pumpier. Nonetheless it was still such a good run and I heard the guys who scored it a few days later had it with 10/10 conditions so I was super stoked for them!

Back on Maui I really wanted to tick off my goal for the trip which was a sub 2 km. Initially I had naively thought ‘Hawaii = fast bumps, this will be easy’ but actually with Maliko being predominantly wind bumps / wind swell its not that fast. The stacked bumps make it quite hard to ‘just’ go fast and line choice is pretty important. You can work your ass off and go 2:10 (like I did in the first week) or you can pick the right lines and go way under 2:00 with little effort (like the best guys do). I was pretty lucky that the first 3-4 days back on Maui were nuking days, and I really got to improve my lines and effort / speed ratio putting together a lot of 2:00-2:05 kms consecutively using the 770/120 and the 720/120 and finally managed to go 1:58 when one of the local guys let me borrow his 680 on the first slightly less windy day which I was super stoked about. I was super surprised at how close the low end of the 680 was to the 770, and with my new goal of making the 770 my more allround foil option, I immediately ordered a 680 for the windier days!

In my last 4-5 days there was a small amount of swell which meant I could head over to the other side of the island in the mornings before the wind picked up and get some SUP foil (if it was small) and prone sessions in. It was so nice to get a break of downwinding and also to foil a really fun wave. I linked up with fellow Appletree rider Matteo (@gurumatteo on instagram) and as well as foiling together Matteo managed to get some photos and clips of me, some of which I’ve posted on my insta and some which I still need to post. The nice thing about prone foiling in some higher energy (by my standards compared to the dutch north sea) waves was that I could play around with foil set ups I wouldn’t normally prone at home and came to really enjoy the Code 720S / short fuse / 142 combo and found it to be a fairly nice allround combo, pretty easy to pump and super fun to surf. 

Morning SUP foil – Photo credits Matteo (@gurumateo)

After ticking off the sub 2, I only had one last thing on the DW wish list on Maui and that was to do a Kihei run. Luckily enough the wind was northerly enough one afternoon that we made the call to head to Kihei. The run didn’t disappoint, with stacked bumps ( like a 30 knot lake run at home just with more energy) putting the 980S / 142 combo in its element. Endless turns for 12km! What’s not to love. 

Wrapping it up

So that’s my Hawaii trip in a not so short summary. The downwinding was amazing, but even more so was the community. It was so great to meet and foil with so many people from the downwind community from all around the world and especially the local crew on Maui and Oahu. It was good to meet new faces and re-connect with folks I don’t see very often. There was nothing but positivity and the community is so welcoming that I can’t wait to go back, or repay the hospitality to anyone that wants to come and try out the cold chocolate waters of the North Sea. 

I’d also like to thank Code foils and Appletree surfboards for the support they give me and also a special shoutout to James Casey for being a sounding board and helping me with prep for this trip. Big thanks to Sibren and the Dutch crew for all the runs together, but the biggest thanks goes to my girlfriend, Freddie, for the unwavering support and without whom I probably wouldn’t have been able to do half the runs I did as well as holding it down with our puppy for 3 weeks when I was away. 

Anyways, lots to work on for next year and looking forwards to how the rest of the year goes (Open de France and personal projects). As always, any feedback, comments, questions, criticism(?), ping me a message (email or instagram) and I’ll try get back to you. 

Note: I intentionally haven’t written anything about the pumping for the whole race / format or style of the race etc as I don’t think it’s my place to comment. I also personally believe that racing is fastest from point A to B, the means with which that is done is wholly up to the person doing it. In order to professionalise the sport and allow the younger generation to benefit from this a level of peak athleticism needs to come into it (something Edo demonstrated this year) and I think downwind racing and downwind foiling will branch off from each other with different gear requirements and focus areas (look at kite foiling and formula kite). I think it would be really cool to see brands pushing DW foiling in the ‘free foiling’ space through media projects showcasing the freedom that DW foiling enables as well as the surfy and creative aspect of the sport as well.